Halfords has shown the door to its chief executive, David Wild, as the bicycle retailer and car repair business admitted "appalling" weather had hit sales, prompting a profit warning.

Wild left with "immediate effect" following a board meeting last night, the company said, only months after launching a revamp of the business. Halfords' non-executive chairman, Dennis Millard, said the retailer had been underperforming for some time – on the same day that JJB Sports, Mothercare and Kingfisher all said the weather had taken its toll on trading. Millard will take on Wild's duties, as executive chairman, until a replacement is found.

"We made the decision last night at a board meeting. I am sure you appreciate that over time the business has been performing less well than we would have hoped. We have spent some considerable time both at the board and management level working on devising the strategy we laid out in May. We however believe it would be a good time to make a change and bring in someone to execute that strategy," he said. Wild, who became chief executive in August 2008, is in line for a payoff of around £645,000.

Halfords revealed on Wednesday morning that even strategic overhauls are fallible in the face of the British weather, when it said the summer washout had caused a 10.5% fall in like-for-like sales in bicycle, camping and leisure products in the 13 weeks to 29 June. Millard said all retailers had been suffering but "in Halfords' case that has been exacerbated by the appalling weather this summer".

Halfords said it expected retail sales to be depressed for the rest of its financial year, which runs through to March 2013, with pre-tax profits coming in between £62m and £70m – compared with analysts' previous expectations of £76m.

Halfords owns 460 retail outlets, which account for nearly 90% of group revenues, with the rest accounted for by the Autocentres car repair business. Millard said Halfords had expected a surge in two-wheeled sales off the back of the Olympics and the Tour de France, but he had first-hand experience of the impact of rain on cyclists' enthusiasm.

"Given the weather people are disinclined to get out on their bicycle. I would know that [because] I do cycle," he added. Under the strategic overhaul, Halfords will be focused on the three pillars of motoring, cycling and camping, the latter element dubbed "the start of great getaways". Overall like-for-like first quarter sales were down 5.6%, Halfords said, with retail numbers expected to remain negative for the first half of the financial year and then flat-to-negative in the second half.

Philip Dorgan, analyst at the stockbroker Panmure, said Wild's departure would be "taken positively", with the interim dividend of 8p also unchanged. He said: "Many market commentators regard Halford's problems as being in execution rather than structural and this could be right." Halfords' shares rose accordingly in early trading, by 7.6%.

Elsewhere in the retail sector this morning, there was further confirmation of the impact of the weather. Kingfisher, Europe's biggest home improvement retailer and owner of the B&Q chain, said like-for-like sales in the 10 weeks to 7 July fell 0.4%, with the UK and Ireland performing slightly better, up 1.1%. "The unprecedented wet weather across Northern Europe has continued throughout our second quarter so far, clearly impacting footfall and consumer demand for outdoor and seasonal products," said Ian Cheshire, Kingfisher's chief executive.

JJB Sports saw its shares take a hammering – down more than a quarter in early trading – after the sporting goods retailer issued another warning on funding problems, while also posting an 8.7% decline in first half underlying sales. The mother and baby products retailer Mothercare reported a 6.7% fall in underlying UK sales over its first quarter to 14 July, highlighting "challenging trading conditions", offset in part by an 11% rise in international sales.